Daily Spitpaint

Big breath anndddd — I was at a 3-day chiptune/video game show called Rockage 3.0 when I ran into an artist / game developer named Frederic (also known as Brobbeh) who told me about the Facebook group, Daily Spitpaint.

The concept (via their Facebook group):

“Spitpainting” is supposed to be a hard exercise. It’s to train you to generate ideas fast, paint fast, and get out of your comfort zone. You are supposed to fail. There is no “finish”, you’re done when the timer beeps. Think of it as a thumbnail.

The rules are simple:

Pick an existing topic

Set timer for 30 minutes

Paint! – You may not use photos

Here is their faq if you have more questions. They also have a Tumblr on which the core artists’ work is featured.

It’s a really talented community with a range of skill levels, techniques, and styles. I love seeing everyone else’s work, and I also love the motivation to challenge myself as an artist. It’s a lot more fun when you have a whole community of individuals working towards their own personal artistic goals with this tool that is available to everyone, if that makes sense.

The pieces that get posted every day are super amazing and so I don’t… post mine… because it is daunting to me hahaha but I post them on my personal blog and I really enjoy doing them. Sometimes I get into this mindset of, “But I don’t have TIMEEEEE!!!” but like… 30 minutes is really not that much time. In fact, it’s very little time! All the better to push myself to continue the practice of art-making.

I definitely recommend joining the community. Whether you actively post or not, taking just 30 minutes out of your day to do these painting challenges is fantastic for releasing the creative spirit and immediately shoving it off a ledge to see how it will survive. What. Anyway, I love it, it’s helpful, and I think you should try it out right now!